The Outlaws of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline

[Joy Beeson]

I've had so many appointments that I've finished reading _The Outlaws
of Mars_ by Otis Adelbert Kline. It's a perfect book for waiting
rooms because I don't have the slightest reluctance to shove it back
into my attache' when I'm called.

The first part of the book consists of "This isn't a rip-off of _A
Princess of Mars_, really it isn't The protagonist is very young, not
so ancient he can't remember. Instead of astral projection, he gets
to Mars by a scientific teleporter. Instead of arriving naked, he has
lots of equipment and weapons. Instead of landing out in the boonies
where he insults the princess by his ignorance that she is asking him
for help, he lands on the roof of her palace and kills her pet because
of his ignorance of the fauna. Instead of Jeddaks, we have Viljens.
Instead of calots, we have dahls. THERE IS NO RESEMBLANCE
WHATSOEVER."

The rest of the book consists of how many people can Jerry kill in
heroic or gruesome ways, going against extremely competent fighters
whom he slaughters by his Earthly muscle or some other hidden
overwhelming advantage, and engaging in ever-increasing mass killings
by inventing improved bombs, culminating in a raid to capture and
re-purpose construction machinery to make short work of a walled city.

In a "happy ending" the princess agrees to come and live with Jerry
and his outlaws, but Jerry has single-handedly insured that the next
war on Mars will be rather like the one we waged only a few years
after the book was published in 1933.

I hear that Otis Adelbert Kline was a very good literary agent.

The replacement waiting-room book is Kipling's _Jungle Book_, which is
good for the opposite reason: I don't mind reading a page or two that
I've already read when I resume a few days or weeks later.

The stories are short, and I already know how they come out. Or, in
some stories, it doesn't matter how they come out; the ending is the
ride operator telling you that it's time to get off.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/



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[Kevrob]

Post by Joy Beeson
I've had so many appointments that I've finished reading _The Outlaws
of Mars_ by Otis Adelbert Kline. It's a perfect book for waiting
rooms because I don't have the slightest reluctance to shove it back
into my attache' when I'm called.
The first part of the book consists of "This isn't a rip-off of _A
Princess of Mars_, really it isn't The protagonist is very young, not
so ancient he can't remember. Instead of astral projection, he gets
to Mars by a scientific teleporter. Instead of arriving naked, he has
lots of equipment and weapons. Instead of landing out in the boonies
where he insults the princess by his ignorance that she is asking him
for help, he lands on the roof of her palace and kills her pet because
of his ignorance of the fauna. Instead of Jeddaks, we have Viljens.
Instead of calots, we have dahls. THERE IS NO RESEMBLANCE
WHATSOEVER."
The rest of the book consists of how many people can Jerry kill in
heroic or gruesome ways, going against extremely competent fighters
whom he slaughters by his Earthly muscle or some other hidden
overwhelming advantage, and engaging in ever-increasing mass killings
by inventing improved bombs, culminating in a raid to capture and
re-purpose construction machinery to make short work of a walled city.
In a "happy ending" the princess agrees to come and live with Jerry
and his outlaws, but Jerry has single-handedly insured that the next
war on Mars will be rather like the one we waged only a few years
after the book was published in 1933.
I hear that Otis Adelbert Kline was a very good literary agent.
The replacement waiting-room book is Kipling's _Jungle Book_, which is
good for the opposite reason: I don't mind reading a page or two that
I've already read when I resume a few days or weeks later.
The stories are short, and I already know how they come out. Or, in
some stories, it doesn't matter how they come out; the ending is the
ride operator telling you that it's time to get off.
--

Mowgli begat Tarzan, who had a slew of imitators, Kline's "Jan of
the Jungle" among them. Fen have long suggested an ERB-OAK feud over
that, and the two authors' Mars and Venus series. Was there really
a feud, though? G W Thomas May blogs that there wasn't one:

http://www.michaelmay.online/2015/01/the-feud-that-never-was-guest-post.html

http://www.gwthomas.org/bio/

Dick Lupoff didn't believe in the feud, either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Adelbert_Kline#Kline_and_Burroughs

One of those, "It should have been true" things, I suppose.
If they were fanzine editors, they would have dreamed it up
as a prank to build circulation!

Kevin R

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Kevrob

Post by Joy Beeson
I've had so many appointments that I've finished reading _The Outlaws
of Mars_ by Otis Adelbert Kline. It's a perfect book for waiting
rooms because I don't have the slightest reluctance to shove it back
into my attache' when I'm called.
The first part of the book consists of "This isn't a rip-off of _A
Princess of Mars_, really it isn't The protagonist is very young, not
so ancient he can't remember. Instead of astral projection, he gets
to Mars by a scientific teleporter. Instead of arriving naked, he has
lots of equipment and weapons. Instead of landing out in the boonies
where he insults the princess by his ignorance that she is asking him
for help, he lands on the roof of her palace and kills her pet because
of his ignorance of the fauna. Instead of Jeddaks, we have Viljens.
Instead of calots, we have dahls. THERE IS NO RESEMBLANCE
WHATSOEVER."
The rest of the book consists of how many people can Jerry kill in
heroic or gruesome ways, going against extremely competent fighters
whom he slaughters by his Earthly muscle or some other hidden
overwhelming advantage, and engaging in ever-increasing mass killings
by inventing improved bombs, culminating in a raid to capture and
re-purpose construction machinery to make short work of a walled city.
In a "happy ending" the princess agrees to come and live with Jerry
and his outlaws, but Jerry has single-handedly insured that the next
war on Mars will be rather like the one we waged only a few years
after the book was published in 1933.
I hear that Otis Adelbert Kline was a very good literary agent.
The replacement waiting-room book is Kipling's _Jungle Book_, which is
good for the opposite reason: I don't mind reading a page or two that
I've already read when I resume a few days or weeks later.
The stories are short, and I already know how they come out. Or, in
some stories, it doesn't matter how they come out; the ending is the
ride operator telling you that it's time to get off.
--

Mowgli begat Tarzan, who had a slew of imitators, Kline's "Jan of
the Jungle" among them. Fen have long suggested an ERB-OAK feud over
that, and the two authors' Mars and Venus series. Was there really
http://www.michaelmay.online/2015/01/the-feud-that-never-was-guest-post.html
http://www.gwthomas.org/bio/
Dick Lupoff didn't believe in the feud, either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Adelbert_Kline#Kline_and_Burroughs
One of those, "It should have been true" things, I suppose.
If they were fanzine editors, they would have dreamed it up
as a prank to build circulation!
Kevin R

Interesting that the WP article has absolutly no biographical details and
that Kline died relatively young.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by Joy Beeson
I've had so many appointments that I've finished reading _The Outlaws
of Mars_ by Otis Adelbert Kline. It's a perfect book for waiting
rooms because I don't have the slightest reluctance to shove it back
into my attache' when I'm called.
The first part of the book consists of "This isn't a rip-off of _A
Princess of Mars_, really it isn't The protagonist is very young, not
so ancient he can't remember. Instead of astral projection, he gets
to Mars by a scientific teleporter. Instead of arriving naked, he has
lots of equipment and weapons. Instead of landing out in the boonies
where he insults the princess by his ignorance that she is asking him
for help, he lands on the roof of her palace and kills her pet because
of his ignorance of the fauna. Instead of Jeddaks, we have Viljens.
Instead of calots, we have dahls. THERE IS NO RESEMBLANCE
WHATSOEVER."
The rest of the book consists of how many people can Jerry kill in
heroic or gruesome ways, going against extremely competent fighters
whom he slaughters by his Earthly muscle or some other hidden
overwhelming advantage, and engaging in ever-increasing mass killings
by inventing improved bombs, culminating in a raid to capture and
re-purpose construction machinery to make short work of a walled city.
In a "happy ending" the princess agrees to come and live with Jerry
and his outlaws, but Jerry has single-handedly insured that the next
war on Mars will be rather like the one we waged only a few years
after the book was published in 1933.

Yeah. I recognized the name, though not the book title.

Post by Joy Beeson
I hear that Otis Adelbert Kline was a very good literary agent.
The replacement waiting-room book is Kipling's _Jungle Book_, which is
good for the opposite reason: I don't mind reading a page or two that
I've already read when I resume a few days or weeks later.

His _Kim_ is good in that regard, particularly for one who has
(as I have) read it so many times I could practially read it
aloud in my sleep.

Time I reread it, actually.

[Quadibloc]

Post by Joy Beeson
The first part of the book consists of "This isn't a rip-off of _A
Princess of Mars_, really it isn't

Actually, that's strange.

This book was a sequel to "A Swordsman of Mars", and I would have expected it to
have had that issue.

In fact, though, looking at a plot outline, the series of books with "Peril" in
the title, set on Venus, even more closely follow the basic plan of "A Princess
of Mars", as the protagonist is enslaved before he marries his princess.

The science fiction encyclopedia web site describes his stories as "violently
colored, crudely racist, and sniggeringly sexist", which is a pity.

Since Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote *only so many* books, naturally people want
more like that. The books by Lin Carter help to meet that demand - and the books
by Otis Adelbert Kline apparently did so as well, as they got quite a few
reprints.

John Savard

[Kevrob]

Post by Quadibloc
Since Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote *only so many* books, naturally people want
more like that. The books by Lin Carter help to meet that demand - and the books
by Otis Adelbert Kline apparently did so as well, as they got quite a few
reprints.

ERB never included a "No, this isn't Lt Gulliver
Jones, it really isn't" section, did he? :)

Kevin R
a.a #2310